In the article The Power of Portfolios the author discusses that as educators especially in early childhood the we have learned that the use of standardized tests may not necessarily be the best way to access reading skills of children. So along with these tests day-to-day insights from the teachers and samples of a child’s work create valuable portfolios that may be beneficial to all involved. Portfolio assessments are beneficial in keeping a record of a child’s ongoing development overtime, children are involved in assessing their own work and they also provide a means of communication for teacher, students and sometimes parents. The article also describes in depth how to decide how to begin developing portfolios for your classroom. It asks key questions for the teachers to answer before presenting this to the class such as where will the portfolios be kept and how will they be organized.

One article I read called Reading Assessment and Instruction Go Hand in Hand tell about how readers need to develop critical reading skills, how teachers can teach students to develop these skills and how these skills can be evaluated. The author feels that by using the Six Traits of an Effective Reader assessment that student reading performance is broken down into teachable and assessable skills. Students are able to see their performance and set goals using the published scoring. The article explains reading skills and appropriate assessment instrument that may be used at various stages of development. The stages include: kindergarten through second grade where a balance of skill acquisition and construction of meaning is needed; grades three through five where students transition from narrative texts to informational reading in all subject areas; middle school where students apply their reading skills across the curriculum and high school and beyond where critical reading can encourage to become lifelong learners. This book also provides many useful tools and ideals that educators can take into the classroom to enhance their students reading experiences.

The first item I read was chapter 5 in the textbook Reading and Learning to Read by Vacca & Vacca. An entire chapter has been devoted to assessing reading performance. The chapter talks about formal, informal and developing portfolio assessments. One ideal that was stressed is that we need to use multiple indicators of student performance for assessment. The public uses assessment to see if students are prepared to enter the workforce. The schools use a

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